Britannia Radio

TELEGRAPH   8.9.08
Bad French prolongs Russia-Georgia conflict
The conflict between Russia and Georgia has been worsened by badly-
translated French, France's foreign minister has admitted on the eve 
of crucial talks in Moscow between the European Union and the Kremlin.

    By Peter Allen in Paris

Last month's ceasefire agreement centred around the creation of 
"buffer zones" between Russia and the Georgian breakaway regions of 
South Ossetia and Abkhazia which are now effectively controlled by 
the Kremlin. The agreement was brokered by Nicolas Sarkozy, the 
French president whose country currently holds the EU presidency. But 
the original diplomatic coup became an embarrassing failure as Russia 
failed to move its troops off the main body of Georgia.

Bernard Kouchner told a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the 
weekend that the ceasefire agreement was written in French before 
being translated into English and then Russian. Asked what problems 
surrounded the buffer zones, Mr Kouchner replied: "The translation, 
as always."

Last month's five day conflict in Georgia cost hundreds of lives, 
with many more injured and made homeless. Russia has redrawn the map 
of Europe and opened a new threatening chapter in its relations with 
the West.

President Sarkozy is due to begin talks in Moscow on Monday about 
maintaining a lasting peace. Troop withdrawal will be a key issue 
when he meets his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. Splits in both 
the EU and Nato have been exposed as a result of the Georgian 
conflict - the US, UK and some new EU members such as Poland have not 
[-] found support for a tough stance against Russia in the absence of 
a withdrawal of troops from Georgia.

One reason for the continuation of the conflict now appears to be a 
passage in the Russian translation of the agreement that speaks of 
security "for" South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The English version speaks 
of security "in" the two areas.

The difference is crucial, because Russia continues to keep its tanks 
and armed troops "in" Georgian territory. The international 
community, in turn, wants security "for" South Ossetia and Abkhazia 
without the Russian army staying in Georgia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed that the ceasefire 
wording made his country sound like an aggressor. He said the 
Georgian interpretation "contains a whole range of distortions" 
including replacement of the preposition "for" with "in".

The farce is a huge blow to the French belief that theirs is a lingua 
franca, spoken and understood the world over.

In fact French has long been replaced by English as the language of 
diplomacy, and is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the 
international community.

Last week French education minister Xavier Darcos admitted that "the 
secret of success" for French youngsters nowadays was to speak English.
The U-turn came just two years after President Jacques Chirac stormed 
out of an EU summit after a French business leader addressed 
delegates in English.

Mr Chirac's view is still regularly backed up by L'Academie 
Francaise, which promotes French as an international language, as 
well as opposing the use of "Franglais" words like "le weekend" and 
"le parking".